Through the Void
by Artemis1223
Summary: Everyone has a story, some are just more obscure than other. Artemis doesn't know much of her past, her brain only seems to remember certain moments, as it so chooses. That all changes during her third Apex Games when she becomes just like another person.
1. Memories

"I think this is probably, my third or fourth Apex Game." I remarked to my teammates.

"All of them winners?" Pathfinder asked in his enthusiastic robotic voice.

"Only one," I replied, "and that was my second one."

"How'd you get eliminated?" Wraith questioned while examining her knife.

"Hmm, let me think. The first one was by a one-on-one against a Hemlock. The second one was by a Longbow shot half a kilometre away." I replied while reminiscing about my previous games.

"Interesting." Wraith commented still engulfed by her knife.

"You know I've got a knife just like that one." I commented trying to change the subject, "A kunai made out of a jet-black metal."

"Show me." Wraith demanded finally shifting her gaze off her knife.

"How'd you lose your arm?" Pathfinder asked noticing my metal left arm.

"Lost it during a battle against an IMC sceptre. The damn thing drove a metal pipe through the area below my shoulder so tight I had to cut the entire arm off." I replied with Pathfinder looking a bit shocked at my answer.

"Where'd you get one of these?" Wraith questioned while comparing mine and her knives.

"Right there." I replied while pointing to the newly uncovered labs.

"So, you wanna land there and do some more investigating?" Wraith asked while getting up and passing me back my knife.

A few minutes later and we were flying through the air towards the giant portal. I swear Wraith's eyes lit up with worry as we passed through the portal. The other end of the portal was deep in the facility.

"Heads up, friend." Pathfinder called to me as he shot an enemy with a peacekeeper.

"Thanks." I called back while running further into the facility. I burst into the side room where there was a wingman lying on a table.

"Score." I said to myself before noticing a computer on the table. The screen read; "Project: Wraith. Subject 2473. Result: Memory loss, subject complaining about hearing 'voices' that keep them up at night. Further research into side effects required."

"What? Why would something like that be here?" I asked before the world around me spun away. "No! Not now!" I yelled into the oncoming darkness. I knew this feeling all too well, it was a 'side effect' of the procedure I had been exposed to in a lab similar to this.

The world fell around me and a new scene was created, the same lab but looking, cleaner. Two scientists walked by talking about how the recent subject, Subject 2473, the same one on the computer, had been complaining continuously about 'voices in her head.'

I continued walking through this 'dream' version of the lab. The central room contained what looked like a medical chair with large needles facing it from all angles.

"That's where you were." A voice whispered.

"Who's there?" I yelled, surprised, turning around looking in all directions.

"I'm you." The voice whispered again.

A person appeared in the chair. She looked exactly like me, same metal arm and everything.

"This is what happened to us." The voice explained.

"This isn't real," I yelled holding back tears and banging my fist on the window, "none of this is real. This is only a figment of my imagination."

"No, Artemis. This is where we came from." The voice whispered. I swear I could feel a chill run down my spine after hearing that.

I was actually crying now. Why was I crying? To that I didn't even know, something about this just felt so, off.

Around the corner I heard two security guards, something told me they would be able to see me, so I ran. For what seemed like hours I ran, deeper and deeper into the lab. Until I came to a room with a hospital bed in it. The room was padded from top to bottom and was completely white.

The room flickered before another woman became visible. Sitting on the bed was someone, someone that looked like Wraith.

"Well Renee, are you ready for the first procedure?" a man asked the woman sitting there.

"Ready as I'll every be." The woman replied, beaming with pride, "This is my life's work, there's no way I'm doing anything else."

"Well then, right this way." The main replied pointing his hand towards the door.

Making sure as to not be seen I followed them, and my worst fears were confirmed. She was led to the room with the medical seat and needles. But the most startling thing was that in a room overlooking I saw, myself.

"Why would I be here?" I asked myself while sneaking over to the control room.

The door was guarded, the only way in was through the ventilation. A duct was right above me and perfect timing with my jumps was what got me up there. While I was in the duct I had to be even more silent.

Soon I found myself above the control room and could see myself at what looked like the main control console.

"Okay, test one for Project: Wraith, now in session. How are you feeling Renee?" the other me asked the woman now sitting in the test chair.

"As ready as I'll every be." The woman in the chair replied confidently.

"Then we are go for test one in 5, 4, 3," the other me counted down until one as the woman in the chair took a deep breath in anticipation, "and 1, begin test." The other me ordered the rest of the people in the control room.

There was silence for a few moments broken only by the whirring of the equipment. Everyone was looking at the glance in anticipation.

"I don't think it worked." The woman in the chair began to say before screaming in pain.

"Shut it down!" the other me yelled at one of the control room staff.

"But, ma'am, the test."

"Don't even dare." The other me yelled, now walking over the person's desk, "Get out of the way."

"But, but, but." The control room staff began to stutter.

"Get out of here, now!" the other me yelled at the person as he ran away, followed by the rest of the staff.

The other me seemed to be putting in shutdown codes that unlocked the red button underneath me. Just as the other me was going to push the button the person that met Sylvena in the room came in holding a pistol.

"Step away from the console Sarah." The man ordered. Sarah, I hadn't heard my old name for so long I'd almost forgotten it.  
"No, what you're doing isn't right." Sarah yelled, her hand held above the button.

"You push that button and I will shoot you." The man mentioned with a surprisingly calm voice.

"Then that's the road I'm taking." Sarah replied with a shit-eating grin as she slammed her hand on the button. The crack of a bullet rang out as she clutched her chest, blood seeping from the spot.

I got too careless and crawled a little too far, trying to get a closer look. The hatch gave way and a feel right onto the concrete floor.

"Who the hell are you?" The man asked with a confused look on his face.

"I am…" I started before being cut off.

"It doesn't matter you're going to die to." The man exclaimed while pulling the trigger a few more time.

The pain was almost unbearable. I tried to put pressure on my wounds but I could still feel blood seeping out. I yelled as the world spun around me and I found myself lying in front of the computer again. Back in the real world.


	2. Procedure 1

"What happened?" Wraith yelled as she ran into the room, finding me crying on the floor in front of the computer.

I couldn't bring myself to speak, every time I tried it was covered by the sound of my sobs. I could only bring myself to point at the computer. She looked at me with sneer as she checked what the screen said.

"Why would you be crying over…" Wraith started to say before her eyes turned milky white for a few moments. When her mind came back to the room she looked at me, a lot more kindly, and said "Wow, that must've been rough." I could only assume that she experienced something similar to what I had.

"Do you wanna continue searching this place or try to loot somewhere else." Wraith asked compassionately.

After a few shuddering breaths I managed to say, "No, we'll continue searching this place."

"Friends, I think I found something." Pathfinder called out from a few rooms over.

The place he was referring to was the control room from my vision. Wraith and I looked at each other with uncertainty as she and Pathfinder checked out the control room and I examined the medical chair more closely.

The cushions on the chair were jet-black while the frame was pure white. There was something made of flexible silicon that wrapped around the top of the head attached to the tubes. I could only imagine that this was how they conducted the 'procedure.' I noticed that one of the tubes had a tear in it.

I ran my hand across the chair to feel it before the facility said, "Lab activating, procedure beginning."

I didn't even have time to move my hand before clamps fastened my wrist to the chair. Wraith could now see what was going on and was running to try and stop it. Within seconds the doors were locked and large concrete security doors covered them.

"Wraith!" I yelled, "What's going on!"

"I don't know. Pathfinder! What's going on?" Wraith yelled as Pathfinder tapped into the computers.

"It appears that a test has started." Pathfinder replied.

"No shit!" Wraith yelled, trying to break open the doors, "Tell me something I don't know."

"Part of Project: Wraith, the dimension traversal test consists of flooding the subject brain with dark matter allowing easier control over dimensional travel." Pathfinder replied while trying to shut the test down.

"What are the side effects?" I yelled, still trying to break free of the restraints.

"Side effects may include, memory loss, chronic amnesia, fever and death." Pathfinder replied, "Restraints loosened."

With that the restraints opened and I broke free. I ran to the door forcing my knife in the middle. Time seamed to slow down while I was doing this. Then my worst fear right now came true.

"Procedure 1 started, injecting dark matter." The computer wailed.

"It's okay isn't it?" Wraith asked, "It only goes through the tubes."

"One of the tubes is broken." I replied, trying even harder now.

A sound rang out through the facility, the sound of a door opening.

"Friends, enemies on their way." Pathfinder alerted.

"On my way." Wraith exclaimed, moving towards the control room with her Prowler at the ready.

My head began to spin and I could see a black, something seeping from the tubes. In the background I could hear gunshots ringing out as Pathfinder counted the number of shots were hits.

I fell to the floor, too weak to even stand, as my mind filled with images, images of what was, what could've been and what will be. All I could do was scream, scream with too much pain to bear, scream with the experiences of infinite deaths and infinite pain.

I now knew what Wraith felt, the pain, the unbearable pain. It lefted me defeated, unable and unwilling to even do anything. Then the voices came, a whisper, telling me everything that I can change, everything that can put me in danger.

It went on forever, the concept of time just vanished. I could only experience death and pain.

"Procedure complete. Opening doors." The computer informed.

Seconds later Wraith's head appeared in front of the doors.

"Help me." Was all I could muster to say before I passed out.


	3. Time For Help

"One more med-kit okay. One more." I could hear as my mind slowly came back to reality.

"What, what happened?" I asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"You've been unconscious for a while now." Wraith replied, "We were starting to wonder if you'd died."

I slowly pushed myself up, every movement nothing but pain. "So, what's the plan now?" I asked while trying to stand upright.

"First we find you a gun." Wraith replied, pointing out the fact that I hadn't gotten a gun yet.

"Then we win, friends." Pathfinder continued, "Hi-five, friends."

Wraith and I just looked at each other with confusion. "No, then we find out as much as we can about this lab, while staying as far away as possible."

"Seems fair." I replied walking to the door.

The death boxes from the victims of the previous battle were still here, and with most of the loot. I picked out my usual loadout as best as I could. An R-301 with assorted attachments and a Triple-Take.

"Either of you have any spare energy ammo?" I called back, realising I only had ten extra rounds.

"Yeah, I got some." Wraith replied running to me, probably to do some looting herself rather than help me.

Luckily there was a 4-10x digital threat scope in one of the boxes, they must've looted one of the starting care packages.

"Now all I need is a precision choke." I mumbled to myself, perhaps a bit loudly.

"I have a spare one." Pathfinder replied pulling the hop-up from his Peacekeeper, "It's a shotgun, it's not like I'm going to need one."

I just awkwardly chuckled. I don't know why to be honest, probably just to be polite. "Should we get going now?" I asked making my way to the exit.

"You don't need to ask me twice." Wraith replied following me out.

The sun was blinding, probably from us being in the lab for so long and the sound of the leviathan roaring startled me.

"Those things are still here, eh." I commented.

"Yeah, no clue when they're going to leave." Wraith replied.

Suddenly a voice whispered in my head, "Sniper, to the left."

"Get down." I ordered while ducking down.

"Why?" Pathfinder asked.

"There's a sniper to the left." I replied pointing to the position of the sniper.

"Shots coming." The voice whispered again.

This time a rolled to the side just as the crack of a bullet went passed me.

"Longbow!" Wraith yelled, now moving to get out of the way, "With Skullpiecer Rilfling."

"Gotcha." I replied, now aiming my own sniper. The indicator for full precision turned on and I set the scope to 10x.

"One shot," I started as I pulled the trigger, the shot going right through the sniper's head, "one kill."

"Impressive." Wraith commented.

"More shooters." The voice whispered now, and on cue I heard the sound of a disruptor-round Alternator.

"Shit." I exclaimed while running, before stopping just as the distinct red bullet trail of a hammerpoint P2020 flew past my head.

I drew my R-301 and took aim, not very accurately but just in the general direction of the enemy. I pulled the trigger and the rounds flew towards the enemy, one mag, two mags, three mags, and not a single hit.

The reason? That stupid voice kept telling me things, clouding my judgement, and making me miss my shots.

"Only one clip left." I told myself getting ready to continue shooting.

"It's not a clip," I heard from around the crates I was hiding behind, "they're what city's use in their hair. These a called magazines."

Bangalore, didn't even have time to aim my gun before a round flew into my shoulder.

"Huh, maybe next time I'll open both eyes." Bangalore taunted, getting ready to pull the trigger.

"Not know though." I heard from behind Bangalore as Wraith drove her knife into her back. Bangalore collapsed to the ground before a retrieval ship took her body for revival leaving only a box of her loot.

"I had that." I exclaimed, very annoyed.

"Clearly." Wraith responded, "You almost had a round through your face."

"Duck." The voice whispered, so I ducked and just as I did an EVA-8 shot flew through the air, where my head would've been.

"Stay clear." Pathfinder commanded over the radio as charged Havoc shot hit the shooter in the chest.

"Great shot." Wraith commended, handing me a syringe med-kit.

I reluctantly took it and healed myself.

"You know we're carrying your sorry ass to victory right now, right?" Wraith asked.

"It's that stupid voice." I replied, "Always saying things and messing up my aim."

"Just listen to it." Wraith suggested, "The same thing happened to me, but when I listened to it I managed to escape that facility."

"I did listen to it," I responded angrily, "but when everything's happening so fast it just gets, cloudy."

"You'll learn how to block out what you want to listen to and what you don't want to listen to eventually." Wraith responded grimly.

We followed each other and watched each other's backs for the rest of the game, though my ass was carried the entire for most of the time. Those damn voices just couldn't let me be. I tried following Wraith's advice of blocking out the warnings I don't want but I just couldn't.

In the end we won the game with only Pathfinder needing to be revived. But I'm hoping for another one soon, I'll just have to wait until I can get these stupid voices under control.


	4. Old Friends

"Okay, let's try this one more time." I told myself as I stepped into the simulator.

"Choose your weapon." The simulator controller commanded.

"R-301 and R-99." I responded, as the same guns formed in my hands.

"Begin." The controller announced as the room went dark.

'Ghost' enemies came from all around, in a semi-realistic manner. This time though, months after my last Apex Games, I finally learnt how to control the voices.

"Behind you." The voice whispered and I turned around firing to see an enemy.

Even when I was surrounded, and everything was happening at once I learnt how to listen to only what I need to and to block out what I don't need.

The simulation ended, and I was getting perfect scores.

"Well done." The controller announced, "Not many people can say that they've done that."

"Yeah," I replied, hands on my knees, out of breath, "I can tell."

The next Apex Games were only a week away, every month the contestants would submit their applications a week before the next games.

Training also started a week beforehand, so we knew our squads and would know how to complement each other's skills.

"Lifeline and Bangalore, eh?" I commented as I got my found out who my squad mates were.

"So, you're Artemis?" Bangalore asked as she read the teammate list, "Your teammate shove a knife through me last game."

"Well you would know something like that was going to happen, right?" Lifeline replied trying to stop any further escalation.

The week of training went as well as it could've gone, Bangalore being a bit of a sore loser from last time and Lifeline just trying us from killing each other.

In the training area there were so many things, simulations, obstacle courses, even survival programs like how to find fresh water, the games can take a while after all. I spent most of my time in the simulator, keeping my voices under control as I fought.

We were expected to know how to do a lot of these things and the training program was just to help us refine those skills and teach us ones we don't know.

"So where we dropping?" Lifeline asked surveying the map.

"The labs." I replied without hesitation, "I've got some unfinished business there."

"You sure?" Bangalore asked, clearly not wanting to land in the area where she was eliminated.

"I'm certain." I replied as I jumped out.

I flew through the air, around the leviathan and over many other areas, until I reached out and fell into the giant portal above the labs.

The back room again, I front of me, a Peacekeeper and an R-301. On instinct I grabbed the Peacekeeper, just as enemies came through the portal. One shot, one down, two shots, another down. The last enemy got past the shot but I tossed my blade, which sunk itself into the enemy's back bringing them down.

"You really got this under control, don't you?" Wraith commented as she came through the portal.

"Leave now or I'll shoot." I exclaimed bringing my Peacekeeper in line to her face.

"I was on my way out anyway." Wraith replied walking towards the portal, "Oh, and there's someone you'd like to meet in the back room."

I shrugged off her comment and looted the three death boxes. An R-301 and some ammo was all that they got, and therefore all that I got. As the three boxes disintegrated from being empty Bangalore and Lifeline came through the doors.

"So here you are." Lifeline exclaimed, "We've been looking all over for you."

"Sorry, I…" I started as the announcer exclaimed that I was the kill leader.

"So, Champion and Kill Leader? It's really going your way, isn't it?" Bangalore commented as she looted some more room.

I made my way to the same room that had the recording. I couldn't bear to listen to the recording again, but something brought my attention to the side room. Through glass I could see someone and a drone, what looked like hacking on the computer there. But the drone looked awfully famililar.

"Crypto?" I asked myself as the drone noticed me.

The person looked up, quickly finished up what he was doing and checked me again, but this time taking a longer look. I gasped as I realised who he was. He moved closer to the glass, finally recognising me, as Bangalore came through the door, though, he ran off.

"Stay here." I commanded Bangalore as I broke the glass with my knife, "Stay here and don't follow me."

I ran through the exit following Crypto, until I came to a three-way intersection. Three ways he could've gone, only one he did.

"Listen to yourself." I told myself as the voice told me to go right.

The walls of this place seemed to get closer together and as I went further along there were less and less lights to show me the way. I didn't notice it then but there was a door that I should've gone in.

Eventually I came to the end. It was pitch black, so I couldn't see anything. I patted the wall in front of me but I couldn't feel anything.

"Damn." I exclaimed but my mind was telling me I hadn't lost him.

Behind me someone was creeping up. Holding a P2020, aimed right at my head. Just as he got to me I flung around, disarmed them before being kicked back. For some reason as I feel into the wall it opened like a door. I was left dangling on the side of the island. They pulled me back in as light illuminated the corridor.

"So it's really you." I exclaimed sitting down against the wall.

"Yes I'm back, but you haven't seen me for much longer I'd assume." Crypto replied.

I noticed a little glimmer come from his pocket, on instinct I grabbed for it. It looked like a giant SD card with his logo on it.

"What is this?" I asked, very suspicious.

"It's just some work stuff." Crypto replied nervously as his drone nodded.

"Work stuff eh?" I replied as my robotic arm made a holographic display and I plugged the card into my arm.

"Let's see," I said as I went through the files, "EMP, Apex Announcer. What's this? Rigging Platform."

"How do you know how to get into that stuff?" Crypto asked.

"I'm the one that taught you hacking. Don't you remember?" I replied, still going through his files, "Now tell me what each of these files are."

"The EMP was what brought down that tower and allowed the flyers and leviathans to come on the island. The Apex Announcer is just the glitches you hear at the start of round 2. And the Rigging Platform is a program _in_ the Apex arena that can rig the game in a person's favour." Crypto replied.

I just nodded as I gave the card back to him and made my way back to my team.

"I copied all the software I need to know when your hacking Crypto. Don't let me see you doing something stupid." I called to him as I went back into the darkness.


	5. Answers

"Where did you go?" Lifeline asked as I walked back through the glass wall.

"Catching up with an old friend." I replied pulling up the screen again and going through the files.

"What's that?" Bangalore asked, only looking at me for a second.

"Something that could change everything." I replied.

One of the files was labelled as Games Movement. Opening it showed lines of code, identical to the ones of the screen he was working on before.

"Why would he be doing this." I mumbled to myself before closing the screen and walking out, "Lets go win this game."

The weeks following the games were hard, at least for me. I knew there was something up, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Why did you ask to meet me here?" Crypto asked as he sat down at the café I was waiting at.

"I want to know exactly how you got this." I replied, holding up a holograph of the 'Rigging Platform' file, "And I want to know what happened to you."

"What do you mean 'what happened to you?'" Crypto asked.

"I mean why did you become so serious?" I replied.

Crypto sighed realising there was no way out of this.

"I found the file while playing around in the code for the Apex Games and I found a protection algorithm." Crypto paused, "Actually Mila found it."

"Mila, your sister was it?" I commented.

"Yeah. Anyway, so we found it but the day after the people that made it, I don't know whether they kidnapped her or killed her, but I've never seen her since." Crypto replied.

"So, this program can rig the Games in anyone's favour?" I asked.

"Yes, it controls weapon drops, item drops and can even control how much damage each shot can do." Crypto replied.

"That's all I needed to hear." I replied, standing up, "I'll see you in the games."

"So, this program controls the games." I told myself while walking away.

I could feel a presence behind me, though. Someone was following me, and not in a good way. I casually looked behind me and could see a group of people in full-black gear, wearing sunglasses.

"What an obvious bad-guy look." I mumbled to myself as I turned into an alleyway.

Shit was about to hit the fan, so I put of my mask, pearly-white with gold lines running down in three lines and a very basic skull carved into the front.

"I know why you're here." I told the people, my back still facing them.

"All I want is that program." The person in the middle ordered, "Give it to me."

"No, because what you want is to kill me." I replied, facing them and slowly walking towards them.

"You got me there." The person replied as each other the four people next to him pulled out guns and aimed them at me.

"Ava," I mumbled to the A.I. I'd made myself, "activate death cloak."

"Fire on my command." The leader commanded his people.

"On impact engage emergency Phase Shift." I continued the instructions to my AI.

"Ready!" The leader commanded, "One more chance Artemis. One more chance before we kill you."

"Try me." I yelled back at him, coming up with a plan for what to do afterwards.

"Alright then." The leader replied, "Fire at will."

All four of them fired at once and as the first shot hit me I made an emergency Phase Shift, a cloak of my body fell to the floor, making it seem like I was dead, but what really happened was for just a second I managed to phase into the void and escape.

"Status report." I whispered to my AI moving towards the space elevator.

"One bullet wound, lower chest." Ava replied, I hadn't noticed the pain until now, "Phase result, similar to tests, unable to do complete phase shift until second procedure complete."

"Second procedure." I mumbled to myself as the space elevator docked at the ship.

Know I needed to go into hiding, something I knew would happen eventually. Hell, I might have already done it, before I lost my memory. The Apex Games were the only thing I could do to get places.

But I had a feeling that someone was going to be very willing to help. And that those labs in King's Canyon were the place for the 'Second Procedure.'


	6. Procedure 2

"Okay, so I just this to go here and that to go there." I mumbled to myself as I went through the lab's computer.

"Why are you here?" Wraith asked out of nowhere.

"I could ask you the same thing, but you could instead just shoot me." I replied not even turning my head.

"I'm on a different team, so what. What I want to know is why I didn't see your name on the contender's list." Wraith said matter-of-factly.

"Because I'm not supposed to be here." I replied.

Wraith paused, looking a bit worried.

"Where are you supposed to be then?" Wraith asked.

"That depends of your perspective." I replied, "If you're a random person, then wherever you think, if you the people that tried to kill me, then I'm supposed to be dead."

"I'm not even going to ask who or why about that." Wraith replied, "Now should I leave, or should I tell my squad mates that you're here?"

With that she left, leaving only me, trying to get into the computer. Finally, after what seemed like hours a symbol appeared on the screen and the text 'Welcome to IMC Singh Laboratory.'

"Procedure 2, now beginning, closing doors in 10 seconds." The computer said, that was my cue to run and get inside.

I got inside just as the countdown hit 0 and the concrete doors came down in front of the regular doors. I sat myself down in the chair as needle pressed into my arms.

"So that's what those are for." I commented.

As the computer's voice gave told me what it was doing the needles injected something into my arms. The computer called it 'dimensional substance #420' but whatever it was it hurt. The pain was immense, like my arms had been dipped in lava, but my hands had been locked down so I couldn't get out. All I could do was scream.

Why there was no warning about this, I don't know. I suppose they planned to use it on unwilling subjects, like Wraith.

My eyes rolled back into my skull and again, like before, other outcomes of events were sent running through my head. The pain was added onto the pain from the substance and everything that could've happened that was mentally painful made me cry.

But in the middle of it all, was a single place. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. All the roads led to this one place, but I didn't know what it was.

When it all stopped, I couldn't feel a thing. All of the pain I could bear was gone. I couldn't even feel the emotion I'd felt when I remember all those bad outcomes. What happened before, so long ago, felt like a pleasant dream compared to this.

"Why would they do this to someone?" I yelled at the emptiness of the room, "And why would someone do this so willingly?"

I remembered the memory, I remembered how willing Wraith was to do this procedure, how willing Renee was to do it. How willing I was to help.

I'd almost forgotten how much of a part I played in this; how much I'd contributed. I didn't even now the full extent, I could've designed the whole rig, I could've designed the substance. I could've even owned the lab and ordered the test.

I couldn't even cry, all emotion had just been pulled from my body, not even a tear could've been shed.

Then, faintly, I could here the sound of the big doors opening.

"Shit." I whispered to myself, "If they find me, they won't be as kind as Wraith."

I stood up, knife in hand and walked towards the entrance. Standing there, a full squad; Caustic, Lifeline and Wattson.

"I don't remember seeing your name on the contender list." Wattson called out, aiming her R-99 at me.

"That's because I ain't part of these games." I replied, "So that means I won't be able to be revived if you shoot me."

"That makes no difference!" Caustic yelled, of course he would be the one to try to shoot me.

He levelled his gun and fired, the bullet just grazing my shoulder.

"Not the best idea." I smirked as the footsteps of another squad could be heard.

Caustic continued to fire, his squad mates now focusing their attention to the now advancing enemy.

"You chose to be on the location of these games, so you must now be a part of them." Caustic yelled, moving forward.

"Ten." I called out, still behind some cover, "Nine."

"Why are you counting?" Wattson called out while firing at the enemy squad.

"Doesn't matter." Caustic replied for me as I continued to count down.

When I got to zero a smile slid across my face. I clenched my first and suddenly everything turned to shades of grey and black, but in a metallic way. I'd finally made my way into the void.

I unclenched my fist, and everything returned to normal. Even Caustic looked a bit surprised as I disappeared and reappeared for a moment.

"Got it under control." I whispered as I lunged forward.

Caustic didn't even have time to pull the trigger before I drove a knife into his back.

"Don't blink next time." I told him as he fell to the floor.

"No hard feelings?" I called to Lifeline and Wattson as I ran back to the portal.

"No!" Wattson replied, slightly laughing at Caustics stupidity.

An easy way up, and an easy way out. I flew over to the area in Swamps where my exit ride was waiting.

I drove away at full speed as I could see and hear bullets flying from Kings Canyon. On the dashboard a notification came up; Crypto. He told me that he'd decided to join the games next season and better yet, that there was going to be a huge change coming.

I was partially excited, but I couldn't even bring myself to be excited after what happened in the labs.


	7. World's Edge

"I'm like whatever. It's not like I'm afraid of another planet." Mirage called out to everyone on the dropship before everything shook, "What was that?"

"Just some minor turbulence," Lifeline replied, "Totally normal for these parts."

"Anyway, all we need to do is find whoever took that tower down, and by them a drink." Mirage continued while putting a figurine of himself back on a desk.

"Why don't you ask the new guy?" Gibraltar suggested.

"Why he ain't too bad of a hacker, knows everything about anything." Lifeline commented as Crypto continued working in the corner.

"Hey, I hear you're the um, second smartest guy in the outlands. Wink!" Mirage called out as he did finger guns to the rest of the dropship.

"Don't flatter yourself." I commented on him watching what Crypto was doing.

"What, you got something to hide?" Mirage asked as he put his hand of Crypto's shoulder, a bit no-no.

In a split second Crypto twisted Mirage's hand while pressing on his shoulder.

"Ha, kid has got some moves." Gibraltar commented, clearly amused by Crypto's display.

"Approaching drop zone." The dropship announced as the teams were selected.

Mirage was clearly annoyed by being teamed up but, shit happens. I even let out an amused chuckle.

"Take care of them." I told Crypto, joking around.

"You're asking me." Crypto replied as he stepped on the drop platform.

I stepped on the platform with my own team, Wraith and Wattson, to get ready for the battle.

"How was last game?" I asked Wattson.

"The one where we ran into you? Yeah it was good, we respawn Caustic after that little battle he had with you and went on to come second." Wattson replied.

As we stopped talking, the clouds dispersed, and the arena came into full view. World's Edge, what a dramatic name for a dramatic place. One area had lava the other, ice and there was a train running all throughout it.

In the platform over I could see Crypto and Mirage in a small argument before Lifeline pushed them off the platform and they flew down into the arena.

"How about the dome?" I suggested before pushing Wraith and Wattson off myself.

"You didn't give us time to answer!" Wattson yelled at me.

"By then the golden time for landing would've past." I replied.

"Well what's the golden time for landing?" Wraith asked.

"600 metres!" I called out as I touched down in front of one of the main buildings.

I looked back towards Wraith and Wattson and I could see Wattson clap her hands with enjoyment as she touched down.

I barged through the doors where in front of me was a P2020. Not the worst gun in the world, especially when you've got a hammerpoint rounds hop-up, which I attached to the gun.

Only seconds later another set of doors opened, this time to my right. I rolled behind cover and loaded my gun, waiting, ready to shoot without hesitation. I kept checking over the left side of my cover, waiting.

"On your right." The voice whispered and I turned around and unloaded an entire 10-round mag into the enemy.

A whole mag was probably overkill but what was left of the enemy was a death box containing nothing but their banner, they didn't have enough time to loot anything.

I just moved along in the building and looted an R-301 to replace my P2020 and a Charge Rifle fit with a 4-8x scope.

In the distance I could hear someone yelling. Octane, his annoying voice was so familiar, he broke the record of the Gauntlet by using grenade blasts and he hadn't lost is recklessness or become less of a daredevil.

I waited for him and his squad to get inside the actual dome before I fired. The laser of the charge rifle hit one of his squad mates dealing some damager before a larger shot hit and knocked them.

"Huh, they must've fixed the knock mechanics." I mumbled as I aimed for the next one and knocked them.

Now Octane had seen what was happening and was running towards a Wraith portal, probably thinking that it was safe. Just as he was about to enter the portal Wraith jumped out, uppercutting him towards another portal which Wattson jumped out of kicking him into the lava.

"Not a bad move." I called out while moving to loot the two people I eliminated.

I got a golden backpack, a purple body shield and a white knockdown shield to add to my blue helmet. I also got an Anvil Receiver for my R-301.

"Anvil Receiver: Uses more ammo but does higher damage when shot in single fire." I mumbled as I read the description of the new hop-up, "And they changed the special effect for the backpack, now it gives revived teammates more health and shields.

"Watcha got?" Wraith asked as she and Wattson walked over.

"Loot." I replied obvious of my smart-ass response, "Let's move to Sorting Factory, I want to catch that train."

"Got it." Wattson replied starting to move in that direction.

When we got there, the train was just leaving.

"Come on, we're gonna miss it." I called out as I stepped on the train.

I made my way to the cockpit where I came face-to-face with Crypto.

"Well, it was going to be inevitable." I whispered as I saw him at the control station, "You just wanna to hand-to-hand combat."

"Sure, why not." Crypto replied, realising that there was no way out.

I drew my knife as Crypto drew a Wingman and shot me in the chest.

"Come on dude, that wasn't cool." I grunted, lying against the wall.

"You should've expected something like this." Crypto replied as his drone scanned my face.

I let out a breath as Crypto grabbed his drone like a knife and slit my throat. I just fell on the floor as I heard Crypto shoot and eliminate my teammates. I just closed my eyes, falling into unconsciousness.

I woke up in the Medical Annex with Wattson and Wraith in medical beds next to me. My throat had been stitched up and I had been fixed up enough to be just like before the game.

"Damn." I grunted as I realised that I had lost the game, "Well some you'll win, other's you'll lose."


	8. The Loot Vault

"One down, two down, three down!" I yelled as I eliminated a whole squad in the tunnel near Train Yard, "I got dibs on whatever they got."

"No, you don't." Lifeline replied, "First to the loot gets dibs."

I was first to the loot anyway, an Anvil Receiver for my R-301 and a Precision Choke for my Triple Take.

"Hey Arty! What's this?" Octane asked as he held out what looked like a key card.

"I don't know." I replied as my robotic arm analysed it, "Key for loot vault."

"What's a loot vault." Octane asked.

"I don't know." I replied.

"Hey! I found something!" Lifeline called out from further in the tunnel.

When we got closer to where Lifeline was, I could see a pair of doors, similar to regular ones, but these were solid gold and couldn't be opened. When I peeked inside, I gasped because of what I saw. There, in the room, was enough golden gear to outfit all our guns and equipment with gold.

"That must be what the key's for." Octane suggested.

I plugged the key card into the slot and the doors swung open. Now that Lifeline and Octane could see what was in there they gasped too.

I immediately grabbed a full set of gold gear. I was even surprised that they changed the gold effects. Body Shield: Healing items deliver effects in half time, Helmet: Ultimate and Tactical Ability charge time restrictions reduced, Knockdown Shield: Supplies one Self-Revive syringe and Backpack: Delivers 50 health and shield to revived teammates.

"You should grab this gear; they changed the effects." I called out while Lifeline and Octane were still standing there with their mouths hanging open, "You might wanna close your mouths. Your jaws are almost at your ankles."

They finally got the message and immediately started looting. I gave a small chuckle as I attached a Digital Threat 4-10x scope to my Triple Take and a Golden Barrel Mod to my R-301.

"They must have at least three of every golden item here." Lifeline commented while she continued to loot around.

"Coming through the door." The voice whispered.

I immediately closed the door, just as an enemy could be seen on the other side of it. Bloodhound, Wattson and Bangalore, why did it have to be those three.

"They can't get us in here, right?" Lifeline asked.

"No," I replied, "not unless they've got a key like ours."

They key! I realised I had left it in the slot so they could open it freely.

"Get in defensive positions!" I commanded as I kneeled behind the cover of a shelf.

"Why? I though they couldn't get through." Octane asked.

"They wouldn't be able get through," I replied, "if it weren't for the fact that I left the key in the door."

The enemy squad noticed our panic and looked around for a way to get in. They then noticed that the light on the door was green, an obvious signal that it was open. I could see Bangalore and Bloodhound nod at each other as Bangalore readied her smoke launcher and Bloodhound readied is sonar.

As Wattson opened the door two clouds of smoke appeared near the door. Only seconds later a sonar ran throughout the room and two glowing eyes became visible through the smoke.

"Open fire!" I yelled as I levelled my R-301 to fire.

Shots kept running out throughout the room. I counted the shots that I fired, one mag, two mags, three mags. After several minutes silence settled in. I kept pulling the trigger before realising that everyone had run out of bullets. I looked towards the door, but I couldn't see anyone.

"Behind you, duck." The voice whispered.

I ducked just as a blade sliced through the air where my head would've been. I turned around to see Bloodhound looking right at me. I quickly knocked his knife out of his hand and grabbed the P2020 off his hip.

I put him in a bear hug with the P2020 against his head. I turned to face his teammates and could see they'd gotten my teammates in the same hold.

"Drop your weapons!" I yelled at them pushing my P2020 harder against Bloodhound's head.

"You first!" Bangalore yelled back switching pointing her Wingman against Lifeline's head and pointing it at mine.

"5." Wattson started counting, "4, 3, 2…"

I shot. Bloodhound fell into the knocked position and before he even hit the ground I'd phased behind Bangalore and Wattson. Before they could even react, I knocked their guns out of their hands and slammed them into the ground. As Wattson hit the ground their bodies disintegrated leaving only death boxes.

"What the fuck was that?!" Octane yelled.

"That was me saving your life." I replied in an emotionless tone, "Let's finish looting and get going."

As we walked out of the vault I remembered to take the key with me. I checked to make sure no one was looking before stashing it in my arm to make a digital copy.

"Ava, make sure to take into account the possibility for changing algorithms." I quietly commanded my AI.

"Yes, ma'am." Ava acknowledged.

"They're probably gonna take this key off us at the end of the game." I told my squad mates, "So we should probably go to all of the other loot vaults as soon as possible."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Lifeline responded.

"Why not?" I asked.

My question was answered for me. As she and Octane started running away, my vision was overtaking by an orange glint and I kept feeling an electric zap.

"The ring." I muttered to myself as I started running.

While running I opened my map and saw that the next ring centred on Skyhook. I made a mental note to find a Peacekeeper on the way due to the city buildings.

We got past the ring, just outside the boundaries of Skyhook and the announcer told us that the next ring would be closing in one hour.

"Hold on, I gotta use a med-kit." I told my squad mates.

Lifeline gasped, mostly from horror as she turned around. I was confused but it became clear why when I looked in a puddle. My face was covered in scorch marks and I had a gash across my forehead.

"You're probably going to need more that a med-kit." Octane joked when he saw my face.

"Very funny." I replied with a scowl as I lied against a rock and applied a med-kit.

As the final hiss of the med-kit dispersed, the final scar on my face healed.

"Why don't they make these more widespread?" I asked before realising the stupidity in my question.

"They do. You obviously haven't been around a hospital lately." Lifeline replied, obviously not getting that I realised the answer as quickly as I said the question.


	9. Frightening News

"But why don't they use the teleporters outside of here?" I asked.

"Because they're expensive, and people would rather see them used in a blood sport than in other places, and I can't blame them." Octane answered, while checking for enemies.

"You can't blame them?!" Lifeline exclaimed, "What the hell is wrong with you?'

"Well, I…" Octane tried to explain.

"Window, straight ahead, sniper." The voice whispered.

"Get down!" I ordered, as the shot of a Charge Rifle became visible.

"How did you know that was going to happen?!" Octane yelled as I drew my sniper.

"Long story." I replied, firing my gun and getting a direct hit.

"Hold on," Lifeline exclaimed grabbing my arm, "You're like Wraith aren't you?"

"That's none of your business." I yelled back pulling my arm away and running towards the sniper.

I couldn't hear what they said after that but when I looked back they were running too. I barged through the door with my R-301 drawn, waiting to see if anyone was there.

"Pre-fire?" Octane asked.

"Yes." Lifeline replied as she fired a single shot.

The shot was followed by a return, two stories above us. I made a quick nod of my head to signal that I was going up. Followed by my squad mates, I creeped up the stairs to see a big body in my way.

"Only one person in the outlands is that fat." I commented, aiming my gun at Gibraltar's head.

"Well it's going to be the one that crushes you." Gibraltar replied, aiming his Peacekeeper at my head.

I shot, and he fell into the knocked position. I turned around to see Mirage aiming a Wingman at me from behind a counter. I phased behind him, grabbing my knife and putting it to his throat.

"Should've taken the shot." I told him as I slit his throat.

"There's one more." I told my teammates as they came up, "I'm going to check the roof, you stay here and cover the floor."

They both nodded in agreement as I took the zip line up to the roof.

"So you took down my teammates." I heard someone say.

"Why is it we always either run into each other as enemies, or are teammates?" I asked with a slight smirk.

Wraith just replied with a slight chuckle.

"So, how has the 'condition' been?" Wraith asked.

"That entirely depends on the context." I replied aiming a Wingman I got off Mirage at Wraith.

"Can't you feel it?" Wraith asked, with fear in her eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I replied, squinting my eyes.

"Somethings going on, focus, can't you feel it?" Wraith repeated, the fear still in her eyes.

I couldn't think of anything that would make Wraith scared, I should know, I've been through what she's been through, so I knew she wasn't bluffing.

I focused on the void, trying to get something out of the voice, but I couldn't find anything. But just as I was about to open my eyes I saw something. A shadow. A shadow shaped like me. It looked, otherworldly, like the manifestation of terror. I couldn't make myself see anymore, but when I tried to open my eyes, they stayed shut. More shadows began to appear, shadows of Pathfinder, Bloodhound, Wattson… Wraith.

Finally I managed to open my eyes. I'd fallen to the ground, my heart was beating so loud I could hear it in my ears.

"What was that?" I asked, panic strewn through the question.

"I don't know." Wraith asked, just as panicked.

I didn't think, I just ran. I didn't think of where but it ended up being off the building. As I fell time seemed to slow down. As I looked up I could see Wraiths scared face, and a ship that beamed me up before I even hit the ground.


	10. Shadowfall Part 1

"How much does she know?" I heard a raspy mans' voice ask.

"I don't know exactly, only that she knows enough to be scared." A woman's voice replied.

"Well find out exactly as soon as you can." The raspy voice asked.

"Yes sir." The woman replied before a blast of sleepiness hit me.

I woke up, what felt like, hours later. I could finally open my eyes and when I looked around it looked like a hospital room. A woman walked in holding a clipboard.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"The Apex Games recovery room. Your squad was eliminated." The woman replied.

"Who else had been here?" I asked, with more of a confused tone.

"Just you and the rest of your squad, they've been moved to get final checks done before being released." The woman replied.

"Run." The voice whispered.

I looked around not seeing a reason to run. Perhaps it was just my anxiety.

"Run!" The voice whispered, a lot louder this time.

"So how has it been since the games finished?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"RUN." The voice commanded, almost at a normal volume.

"The games are still on, the last two squads are fighting it out right now." The woman replied, turning on the screen showing the final battle.

"RUN!" The voice yelled, filling my head and forcing my legs to run.

I burst through the doors of the room coming to a hallway. The voice told me to go left, and my legs followed. Rooms flew by me, as I ran for minutes that seemed like hours. Finally I came to the end of the hallway. A big double door stood in front of me.

As I walked through the light of hundreds of screens filled the room while employees monitored them. I tried to sneak through but someone noticed me which put me into a run.

This time security was running after me. I entered another hallway which lead to the exit. When I burst through the exit doors I was greeted by a portal, one that looked like Wraith's. I was almost going to leave it but security went through the door too so I jumped into the portal which closed behind me. To my surprise I was back in World's Edge, and I could hear a firefight going on.

"Help." Someone behind me asked, holding out an R-301.

I picked up the gun and inspected it. I nodded at the person and ran from behind the rock to join the rest of his squad. When I looked back though, he was gone.

"Artemis? What are you doing here?" Wraith asked me.

"I uh… I… It's a long story." I replied, surprised to see her here.

Fire ran down on us as the final squad moved in closer.

"Here take this." Wraith ordered, holding out her Phase device, "Use it to create a portal to over there."

"Okay, how do I use it?" I asked putting the device on my arm.

"Just command it to, in your mind." Wraith replied, firing back.

I told myself that I could do it, and I made an entrance portal right next to us.

"Okay, go through and make an exit over there." Wraith ordered pointing to another rock.

I nodded and went through. When I walked through though, everything felt off. I was back in King's Canyon, except it was too dark, and the Leviathans were green and spewed fire. Behind me Wraith came through the portal, just as it closed, and she gawked at the sight.

"Welcome contestants." I raspy voice announced from all around, "This is my game, and here, you'll learn to fear the shadows."

I barely had time to give Wraith's device back before it felt like every atom of my being was being pulled apart and a woke up in a dropship with 31 other people in there with me, including the most famous.

"The ruled are simple, first it's a free-for-all then, the remaining ten are a squad that have to survive, well, I'm not gonna tell you." The voice announced as the dropship doors opened.

"Revenant." The voice whispered, and I guessed that that was the guy's name.

The ring was destined to centre on Artillery. I decided to land outside Bunker to be safe. As I hit the ground I looked up and saw the rest of the contestants landing. I quickly ran inside to grab a gun. In front of me lay a Mozambique. I cursed the maker of this game and grabbed the gun moving to loot the rest of the building. I then found a P2020 and Hammerpoint rounds for each.

"What kind of silly game is this?" I asked as I ran out through the top door of the building.

"First blood, the shadows are alive!" Revenant announced.

I couldn't make sense of what he said so I moved on. In the second building I found another person, I sneaked up behind them more pumping a few Mozambique shots into their head. Their loot box hit the floor and contained no useful items.

I heard the familiar sound of more people dying, but Revenant kept referring to 'shadows' becoming 'alive'. This whole thing confused me, but I had more pressing issues. I heard an enemy coming through the door, ten shots from a P2020 and two from a Mozambique ended them.

I was definitely happy with the result of their death. Their death box held a level 2 Body Shield, an R-99 and a Spitfire. I heard a strange noise, though, like the sound of someone breathing through a respirator. I turned around to see a strange creature, it looked like it was made of a dark mist and had red specks strung throughout it. Its head twitched to the side every second I looked at it, until it charged at me. I hit me with enormous power, I was knocked into the wall behind me.

It ran forward again and pushed me against the wall by my throat, strangling me. I tried to punch it, to no avail. I ended up just shooting it with my R-99. When I shot it, it dissipated into the air leaving only the red specks for a few seconds.

I finally had a chance to catch my breath, and to think about what just happened. I just shot something (and probably killed it), that was made of a dark mist, and it just disappeared. I didn't know what was happening, but I was sure gonna survive it.


	11. Shadowfall Part 2

"The ring moves." Revenant announced as I fought off more shadow creatures, "I like it when you run."

I was now in Containment, surrounded by the shadow creatures, the horde seemed to go on forever. I looked to the sky for only a second and saw why, when they were 'killed' they fell again like at the beginning. I cursed Revenant and continued to fire, the sounds of my Spitfire pretty much burned into my brain.

I finally heard the sound I never wanted to hear, the distinct '_clink_' that indicated an empty mag, followed by a '_bzz_' that indicated that I had no more corresponding ammo.

"Shit!" I yelled, tossing my Spitfire aside and pulling out my R-99.

I burned through mags like nobody's business as the shadow creatures dispersed then reformed as they fell again. Again I heard the combination I didn't want to hear, a '_clink_' of no ammo in mag, and a '_bzz_' of no ammo at all. I tossed the gun aside and pulled out my knife.

"Come on!" I yelled, "I'm waiting!"

When I announced that they began to assault harder, as if they understood me. I sliced through the first few, but as more came I was overwhelmed. It barely took any time before they had me pinned against the ground, grabbing and hitting me. I heard the sound of something metallic hit the ground, then I saw a grenade right next to my head.

I braced for the impact of the grenade to kill me, I imagined the feeling of it blowing me to pieces. Then, just as it was about to explode, I heard: "The final ten! Congratulations, now you must survive together." And the grenade blew up killing all the shadows. I sat up instantly on instinct and checked all of my limbs. Legs, ok; torso, ok; head, ok; arms, only one cut off. I looked around to see who tossed the grenade, where I saw Wraith.

"Why is it your either saving me, or I'm saving you?" I asked rhetorically picking myself up.

"To be honest I was aiming to kill you." Wraith replied, "But not you personally."

"So, trying to kill whoever was there, but if you knew it was me, you wouldn't have tossed the grenade?" I asked to clarify.

"Yeah, pretty much." Wraith replied, tossing me my R-99.

"I need ammo." I commented.

"Here, I got some spare." Wraith replied, handing me 100 light ammo.

"Thanks." I replied reloading my gun.

I had enough ammo for five full mags, including the one I had loaded.

"Whoever designed this game is a sick twisted…" I started.

"Revenant." Wraith commented.

"What?" I asked.

"Revenant." Wraith repeated, "That name keeps bouncing around my head, like I've heard I before."

I nodded my head, while unconsciously resting my hand on Wraith's. When I did though, I saw something. It felt like I was falling as my mind detached from my body, I didn't know how long the fall was truly, but it felt like a forever.

When I finally hit the ground, the world around me felt strange, like it wasn't my own. As I turned around the world formed into a psychiatric ward. A woman sat on the bed, whimpering. I walked over to her and asked what was wrong. She kept saying that I wasn't real, that I was only part of her imagination. She kept rocking backwards and forwards as she tried to comfort herself.

I stood up, and as I did the world changed again, this time I saw the same woman be pushed onto the bed by a man in a scientist uniform. The woman kept whimpering about voices as the man prepared a syringe, most likely to sedate her.

I finally realised what was up as I saw someone else barge into the room and slice the man's arm as he ran away. I looked out the window where I saw the room I knew too well, and I realised where I was. I was in Wraith's memories! I quickly hid as the person dragged Wraith through the door into a control room.

I saw someone at the head of the control room killing the guards before, what I'm assuming, hacking into the computer. I saw the person in the control room give a thumbs up to the woman dragging Wraith before running off to do something else. I looked back at Wraith and the other person where I saw them kneeling down talking. I finally saw the other person's face, it was Wraith. The whole thing confused me, I instantly forced myself to pick my hand up in the real world as something sucked me in the air and my mind was reconnected to my body.

Wraith didn't look very suspicious or anything so I assumed that it didn't take longer than a second in real time. We got up as we saw a yellow beacon coming from Artillery.

"The ship is arriving, you better get there quick." Revenant announced.

I could only assume that that was the ship to get out. I would be certainly happy about that. Wraith and I both nodded at each other as we made our way there. When we got closer we heard tons of gunshots from inside. We ran through the end of the west tunnel and saw hundreds of shadows attacking a building that I assumed contained the rest of the survivors.

Wraith and I took one of the side doors, making sure to close it behind us as the shadows couldn't open them. We ran up the stairs to the roof and was greeted by an electric fence and a gun pointed at us, it was Wattson.

"Thank god you're here." Wattson told us as she signalled us to the top, "Something weird has been going on."

"Are you being attacked by crazy shadow monsters and wondering what the hell is going on?" I asked.

Wattson laughed as she pushed us inside the top section.


	12. Shadowfall: Ending

"So, who's still alive?" I asked as Wattson handed me some heavy ammo.

"Bloodhound, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Pathfinder, Bangalore, Mirage, Crypto and you two." Wattson replied, "And Lifeline and Mirage are out of action for a while because Mirage got hit and Lifeline wants to make sure he's okay."

I nodded while reloading my guns, this whole fiasco was very confusing to me. I tried going through each moment individually but it didn't help, and I was sure that everyone else here was just as confused as I was.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked, slumping into a corner.

"Wait for that evac ship." Bangalore answered.

"Well, when's it expected to arrive?" I asked.

"One hour." Wattson answered looking at the sky, "He told me."

"Who, Revenant?" Gibraltar asked, "I wouldn't trust that guy with so much as a coffee, let alone our escape."

"Well who else do we have to trust?" Wattson asked with a sharp tone, "Besides something about this feels… off, like it's not real."

"Have you been hit by one of those things?!" I asked, standing up.

"No, but…" Wattson replied.

"Well, they feel as real as you can get, so I think that's good enough!" I yelled.

There was an awkward silence that felt like forever, it was only broken by the sound of fists hitting metal then the sliding of a door.

"They're coming!" Bangalore exclaimed, grabbing her Flatline.

"Fencing." Wattson yelled as she set up electric fences on each of the doorways.

I grabbed my guns and climbed up one of shelves while commanding everyone else to do the same. It gave us both a height advantage and the ability to see everywhere in the room.

"Half of you watch that door, the other half watch the other." I commanded, pointing at each of the doors.

There was a deadly silence as we all anticipated the shadows coming through. After a minute of silence everyone was looking at each other.

"Maybe they aren't coming through… _aaahhh_!" Lifeline screamed as the doors burst open from both sides.

The room shone up with muzzle flashes as everyone fired towards their respective doors, every shot meant a shadow dispersed and each shadow dispersed warranted a small groan from Revenant. Eventually I ran out of ammo on my Spitfire and as that happened Revenant announced the dropship was arriving.

"I got a plan!" I yelled as I tossed a grenade at each of the doors and a thermite at one of them, "Run out the one without the thermite!"

Everyone ran out the door I referred to. I followed behind showering the remaining shadows with my R-99 fire. We all saw the green beacon signifying the area that the dropship was coming from. Pathfinder got the clue that it was his turn as he shot a zip-line toward the evac zone.

The other end of the zip-line hit right in the middle of the large wall pointing south. Everyone hopped on the zip-line, with me getting on last, all while I fired on the following shadows. When we hit the other end there were shadows coming across the zip-line.

I continued to fire towards the zip-line as the rest of the team fired at the shadows climbing up the sides.

"Dropping the pain!" Gibraltar yelled as he tossed a Defensive Bombardment grenade on the floor.

Wattson, noticing this, dropped a pylon in the middle of us, carefully positioning so it only protected us from the bombardment.

The sky shone up with electricity, while the top of the wall shone up with our gunfire. Finally we looked up to see the evac ship arriving. I hesitated for only a second, but it was a second too long. In an instant a shadow grabbed me and pulled me off the wall. We hit the ground with my knife through its head.

I tossed a grenade at my feet as a precaution while I climbed back up, using my knife to get grip to climb up. As I climbed I saw the evac ship arrive, I wouldn't expect them to wait for me, but I still climbed as fast as I could. When I climbed to the top my suspicions were confirmed, they were all on the evac ship and it was leaving.

"Come on!" Bangalore yelled at me as the ship started to take off.

I jumped into a panicked run as more shadows ran up trying to grab me. The ship left the ground and hovered over the side of the wall for a few seconds, just to taunt me. I cursed Revenant and ran as fast as I could, getting to the edge before jumping and time seemed to slow down for a moment.

The evac ship engines were starting to fire, it would be only seconds before they jumped away safely. I reached my hand out, hoping against hope that someone would grab it. Just as I was going to fall past, just when I knew I was going to die, someone grabbed my hand and pulled me inside.

I scrambled for a seat while the back closed and the ship jumped away. I heard Revenant growl in my head, annoyed that we had all gotten away and as my vision became cloudy and the world faded away, I heard him promising to get revenge.


	13. After the Shadows

We all opened our eyes to find ourselves outside the Apex Games HQ. I looked around and immediately wished I hadn't. They were bodies strewn everywhere, not a lot by any means but the way most of them were shaped made it even worse.

Some only had a few broken bones and twisted limbs, those screamed in pain and horror, some were twisted in horrific ways, others were so deformed their guts were hanging out and you could see broken bones sticking out.

I turned around to vomit before composing myself. Those who weren't screaming were obviously dead, those who were screaming weren't. That was all I needed to tell myself to pull myself together.

"Get these three inside into the medical wing." I commanded the other people that had survived, pointing at the three who were screaming in agony.

I grabbed one of them, a woman with flowing blonde hair, and ran inside as fast as I could. Gibraltar grabbed one, who I was sure was Caustic, and Bloudhound grabbed the other, Octane. Caustic and Octane looked like they only had some broken bones, but the woman I was carrying looked like her whole arm had been turned back-to-front.

I burst inside the Medical Wing and laid the woman on a nearby bed before commanding the staff working there to try and save the three. I went back outside to assess the bodies of everyone else. I wasn't very surprised to see that only the other two Legends had survived, and judging by the damage done to all the bodies I assumed that the longer they had been shadows the more they had been, deformed.

"You know they say Legends never die," I heard someone say behind me, I turned around to see Bangalore talking, "and judging by the events of today I'd say that's true."

"I do find it a bit ironic that it was the Legends that won as opposed to the one-timers." I replied satirically.

Legends was the nickname we gave to the people that come back to the games time and time again. Most people join for one round then get 'killed' and never return, we call them one-timers, the ones that were too weak to come back often.

"Why didn't the shields work?" Wattson asked, horrified by the scene, "I specially engineered them to protect against people dying like this."

"Someone turned them off." I replied, kneeling down next to one of the bodies, "Tell me how it works again?"

"Well, there's a large electromagnetic field around the arena that cushions the impact of the rounds, enough to injure but not enough to kill, then when they're eliminated the satellite beams them up for transport to the recovery room here." Wattson explained, "Oh, father and I engineered it just to the Syndicates design."

"Syndicate?" I repeated quietly, the name sending a chill down my spine.

I pulled out the cheat file Crypto had found and checked through the code, sure enough it might as well as had 'Syndicate' printed all over it. Every code that was non-essential was identical to so many files I'd pulled off a secret service that had gone by 'Syndicate.'

"What do you know about the Syndicate?" I asked, standing up.

"Not much, just that they run the Apex Games and asked Father and I to design it." Wattson replied.

"Right, well they ain't gonna be happy about what I'm about to do." I commented as I changed one digit in the code, Squad Size, from 3 to 2.

A small smirk ran across my face as I remembered the people that tried to kill me and how they were probably kicking themselves because of how stupid they were not making sure I was dead.

"I don't know what to do about these," I announced referring to the multitude of dead bodies, "but I'm going to check on the other survivors before getting a drink."

Octane was buzzing with adrenaline when I checked on him, he didn't even seem to notice that his arm was bent backwards. He still greeted me with the same energy as always. Caustic was… less pleased to see me, he looked like he would've preferred to stay in the shadow place than here. I never really understood why he hated everyone so much, but in a subtle way.

I made a quick glance towards the woman I saved before going to the bar. They really had everything you could want in the Apex Games Headquarters, cafés, bars, training annex, if you could think it they probably had it. As I was one my third drink Wraith joined me.

"How long do you think it'll be before they host another game?" Wraith asked.

"I don't know," I replied, bringing up a list of contestants, "the contestant list hasn't really gone down, so I'd assume next month like always."

Wraith nodded, clearly seeing that I was disturbed.

"How much control do you have over phasing in and out of the void do you have?" Wraith asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not much, I can only do it in extreme circumstances." I replied, "Why?"

"Because I was wondering whether I should show you how to build one of these," Wraith continued, pointing at her wrist device, "or not."

"I'm going to assume that it's going to be an or not." I replied with a little chuckle, "Either way I'm going to prepare for next month, let's hope it's a good one."


	14. A New Fan

"And the aftermath of what happened at last month's Apex Games has still rattled the Outlands. People are trying to explain what exactly happened and why." The screen in the training annex blared, "The reports of the 13 survivors talk about a place similar to the previous Apex Games arena King's Canyon but dark with the leviathans being green and spewing green fire."

"Can someone change the channel?" Bangalore asked before someone when over to the screen and changed it.

I was spending time in the simulator during this, like I normally do while I train. I set a new high score every time I went in it. A little game among the Legends was to see who could get the highest score in the simulator and Wraith and I were always the really the ones fighting for highest.

"Ava." I whispered, activating my A.I.

"Yes ma'am, what do you need?" Ava asked.

"Take a comprehensive systems scan of Wraith's device, I want to know everything about it." I ordered, looking at Wraith out of the corner of my eye.

"Yes ma'am." Ava replied.

Something else caught my eye, the woman from the shadow place was also training. I made an amused chuckle as I was going to be sure that after something like the Shadowfall, as we now called it, they would surely quit. I was definitely going to keep an eye on her as we may have another Legend.

The simulator shut down showing the score, 261 926, now that was a high score. I stepped out to see many of the contestants looking at the score with their jaws hitting the floor.

"You can stop gawking now, or are you waiting for a written invitation." I said ruefully as I walked away.

"Scan complete." Ava announced, showing a detailed report.

"Perfect, process integration and order a coffee." I replied, joking about the coffee.

I could feel the parts moving around in my arm, making space for a device such as one of those. It didn't feel like pain, more like someone lightly prodding my arm.

"One hour until dropship leaves." The P.A. system announced.

"Ava, how long will it be until you complete the integration?" I asked.

"Three hours." Ava replied.

"Well, pause at the first opportunity in one hour and resume after the games." I ordered before walking towards the dropship.

One hour waiting and a thirty minute space trip later we were on the way to World's Edge. Everyone had moved into their respective areas with the one-timers looking jealously at the space the Legends had, we were the main source of income for the game makers so they made sure to make us a comfortable as possible.

As we moved closer to the arena the squads were shown. I moved to my spot while everyone else looked a bit confused as to why there were only two people in a squad instead of three, but nobody said anything for fear of causing an uproar.

"So, you're Artemis?" someone asked as I waited.

"Yeah, who're you?" I replied turning around.

"I'm your squad mate, and the person you saved." The woman replied.

"Ah, yes I remember now. So you must be… Jen?" I replied looking at the squad display for her name.

"Yes." Jen replied, she almost looked like she was going to explode with excitement.

"I'll give you an autograph afterwards." I sighed picking up on her wanting one.

This made her look even more excited. I swore, she would completely explode in a few moments. I suggested we land on the train as it was about to stop in Capital City so we jumped. I landed a bit before Jen so I was first to loot the train. I'd only picked up a Wingman and some ammo before a felt some shots hit me from behind as someone was shooting at me with a P2020. I started running towards them as they frantically shot at me, but I just dodged most of the shots. As I was about to knock them out with a punch my Ava chipped in.

"Integration complete!" Ava announced.

"Ava, you son of a bit…!" I yelled as I phased through the enemy and de-phased on the other side.

I didn't have much more time to think, and neither did the guy that tried to shoot me. I levelled my Wingman at his head and fired. Another shot and all that was left of him was a box and his banner.

"Never use a peashooter without hammerpoint." I commented as the train came to a stop.

I still grabbed the P2020 because I might find one but since I had a wingman I could just replace it as easily. As I searched the rest of the train I did find a hammerpoint hop-up and Jen.

"What have you got?" I asked.

"RE-45 and Devotion." Jen replied, "You?"

"Wingman and P2020." I replied.

"Shooter, behind." The voice whispered as I pushed Jen behind a wall in response.

I blindly fired a few shots before taking cover behind a supply bin. I was almost out of shots on my Wingman so I had to make every one of them count. One shot, miss, second shot, miss, third shot, miss again. I cursed myself as I levelled for a fourth shot. Again it was a miss. Looked like I only had the peashooter to use.

I kept firing until I had only one more mag. With quick thinking I phased through them and started firing from the other side. They got knocked, which must mean they had another teammate around.

"Check around for another person." I ordered Jen, "I'll keep an eye on this guy."

I had a sneaking suspicion that he had a gold knockdown shield, which would mean he had a self-revive syringe. I realised this possibility too late as a shot hit my shoulder and I only had five bullets left. Again I took cover, and so did the other guy.

"This your doing Arty?" The person said.

"Yes it is Crypto." I replied, firing a few shots around the corner and eliminating Crypto, "and it's Artemis."

I quickly looted the knockdown shield as Jen came around the corner. I waived my hand towards the loot boxes as to say they're all yours. Jen looked so excited again I just had to turn away to have a little chuckle. I guess I would be just as excited if I met a celebrity.


End file.
